DISCLAIMER
This review for PGA Tour Pro Golf on Apple Arcade was written before the game received a major update on March 11th. The update introduces a single-player campaign mode that fixes some of the game's issues stated in this review.
Genre: Sports
Modes: Single-Player
Developer: HypGames
Publisher: HypGames, Inc.
Release Date: February 6th 2025
Available On: iOS, iPadOS, macOS, tvOS, visionOS
Reviewed On: iOS
Sports games are not my forte when it comes to gaming. I have played a fair few FIFA games in the past, and I played Fight Night 2004 and AFL Premiership 2005 on the PS2 a lot when I was younger. Golf is a sport I have always wanted to be good at. The thought of grabbing my clubs and hitting the driving range sounds like a perfect way to spend a sunny afternoon. For now, we have PGA Tour Pro Golf for Apple Arcade to fill that void. After spending four hours playing this game, I realised that it is a solid golf game, but there is not a whole lot more to it. Any aficionados of sports video games will love this game as it allows you to play a semi-realistic golf game on your iPhone, and its convenience is what makes the game worth it. But like almost all sports game franchises, it does not offer anything new to the formula, and due to the online format of the game, it involves a great deal of grinding to get better clubs and balls and unlocking more golf courses.
TEEING OFF:
For an Apple Arcade title, PGA Tour Pro Golf does not sacrifice graphical fidelity in order for the game to function on an iPhone. The game looks really good for an iOS game. Granted, it does not have the ultra-realistic graphics that a console sports game can have, but this is not a bad thing at all. What matters most is the game’s performance and whether or not it is accessible for casual games. On that front, PGA Tour Pro Golf for Apple Arcade excels. It performs at a consistent 60 fps and never dropped in frames once during my playthrough. There was the odd occasion where the game took a few extra seconds to load to my next shot, but this primarily happened when I was away from my home Wi-Fi, so I could not fault the game there.
If you have played a video game based on golf before, whether on a console or mobile, you will be very familiar with PGA Tour Pro Golf on Apple Arcade in terms of gameplay. You start at the beginning of a whole and pull the ball back to adjust the power of your shot. As you pull back, an arrow appears, moving from side to side, and this dictates the direction your ball goes. Ideally, you want the shot to be as straight as possible to get the most power, but you may have to carefully time the shot to head in different directions depending on the type of grass, wind speed and the club you are using. If you take a shot on the fairway, the directional arrow moves slower; taking a shot from the rough results in the arrow moving faster, and the arrow moves even quicker during a bunker shot. Getting stuck in the bunker can be a disaster during any match, whether it be a head-to-head match or a tournament because it can result in an instant loss if you do not play patiently and time your shot to the directional arrow. The gameplay is simple, but it requires a copious amount of practice to get good. During my playtime, I managed to get two eagles, and I was not able to get a higher score than that.
PERFECTING YOUR SHOT
The core gameplay of PGA Tour Pro Golf on Apple Arcade stays the same, but you are able to slightly alter and upgrade your shots with different balls and golf clubs. If you win a round in any mode, you win experience points and coins, which can go towards purchasing and upgrading different clubs and balls. The coins let you buy the items, and the experience points upgrade the performance of your club. There are many clubs to buy in the game, and some of them are given to you if you get a high enough position in a tournament or if you win a head-to-head match.
The replay value is good here, but the amount of grinding you have to do to get better clubs is not good. It did not surprise me that the level of grinding you have to do to get better clubs, and a higher chance of winning is exhausting. If you enjoy the gameplay of the game, it would not be as tiring because you are constantly facing different people, but the problem is the repetitive nature of the golf courses. In the earlier period of my playthrough, you had a small number of golf courses unlocked, and you would likely be playing on the same par-four course up to a dozen times in a head-to-head. It is annoying, but it makes sense that the more progression you make, the more courses open up to you.
Unfortunately, I did not find the different golf balls as impactful as the various golf clubs. Unlocking new clubs, seeing their stats, and then comparing them to others during a round is very easy to notice. However, the different golf balls in the game did not make a clear comparison to me. I experimented with different golf balls, some of which make the ball go further, others decrease the impact of wind speed, and they made no difference in the grand scheme of things. During my playthrough, I alternated between the standard golf ball and a modified golf ball to see if there was any noticeable difference, but it did not feel like there was.
My final annoyance with the game is that PGA Tour Pro Golf on Apple Arcade automatically assigns you a club during a round, depending on how far away you are from a hole. For example, if you are on a par-five course, you tee off with a driver equipped. Let’s say you mess up the shot and are still a long distance from the hole. You may want to use the driver again to gain the upper hand against players and make up for your bad shot, but the game does not let you do this. Instead, the game will automatically assign you either a wood or an iron. The fact that you cannot manually change your clubs during a round in a golf game is pretty dismal, and I can see this being a huge problem for gamers who are familiar with golf games.
PGA Tour Pro Golf — Apple Arcade Review: Verdict
As a casual golf game, PGA Tour Pro Golf on Apple Arcade does its job well enough to satisfy any casual gamers looking for a mobile game. Winning a match is satisfying, levelling up your clubs is essential to win matches, and the gameplay itself is an example of the phrase easy to learn but hard to master. Sadly, not being able to select your golf clubs during a match manually, the lacklustre golf clubs and the amount of grinding you have to do to get better gear is enough to turn away many people. I did have fun with this game, but I will not return to it in the future.
Comments